Idolatry of Marrage: part 2 Relationships

We focused on a topic in which people might think that they are not included, so I wanted to broaden the landscape before we close out of this. There is a known parallel between Christian marriage and the relationship between Christ and the Church within the Bible(I.E: we are the bride of Christ)

Ephesians 5:21-27 (King James Version)“ 21Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. 22Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
Romans 7:4 (King James Version) 4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

There are many examples where the Bible puts emphasis on the relationship with your brothers and sisters in Christ; the highest calling that I can recall of this is in Matthew 22:39 (“39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”) Now lets address what it says at the start of this verse: “And the second is like it.” It is to my encouragement that many of the churches in which I meet are highly interested in and do play the role well of love my neighbor, but indeed there are many which for the sake of loving your neighbor erase from their minds “the second is like it” and simply keeping “love your neighbor.” Now why would this be a issue? Because of the great misdeed it does to our Lord, for it says in fullness Matthew 22:37-39: “37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” For the greatest commandment is loving God, and it is only through loving God Fully that we are able to do the second commandment. We must extend our heart, soul and mind to God and have him as our first love; otherwise, it is idolatry which we are performing by loving the relationships with people greater then loving God. For it was God who said in Revelation 2:4-5 (New International Version, ©2011): “4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

So, what would be a example of loving a relationship more than God? Think about it this way: love creates in us a fullness, a value, and even a hope. So it is something that we naturally long for. The psalmist writes this; “Psalm 84:2 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD;my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” Yet Christians can be stuck in yearning and finding fullness in the relationships with others, things like “oh I hope he says something nice about me.” or “I hope she talks to me today,” or even “I am waiting anxiously for my friend to get here because they make my day better.” All of these examples can be signs of a heart issue of discontentment, so I urge you in this regard: take some time to think over your relationships that you are investing time in, and ask yourself this, “Am I in a relationship with this person to fulfill a desire in my heart,” and “Am I seeking God to fill these areas in my heart?” Be on guard; you can say no to the first question but still be dealing with the lack of Gods presence in your life.

Let me close with this, relationships are vital in a Christan's life, and God lays that out plainly in the Bible. Just make sure that you are not forsaking your first love, because then those healthy relationships can become harmful as a means to fill you emotionally, and kill you spiritually!

My prayer:
God you are my first love; you taught me how to love when you showed me on the cross what it means to love. without that I can not begin to love those you call me to care for and show love to. It is my hope that I am not misplacing my fulfillment in relationships with others, but you know my heart and how deceitful it is. Reveal to me your understanding of myself and my lifestyle and point out to me where I am falling so that I can walk next to you. If there be any misdeed of this in my life, Lord, please forgive me and may my love be always trying to reflect your love for me. Amen

The Idolatry Of Marriage

Growing up it was just assumed that I would get married, living in a Christian house the ideology is focused on the family and in my upbringing I honestly have been groomed to be a husband. I have no hard feelings against these facts but it did mold in me a heart issue that I believe extends past me and also into my brothers and sisters. The heart issue being broken down into these parts: I raised my plans above The Lord assuming that was the only way he was going to use me in relationships but he stirred this up in my heart “my word is true and I keep my promises” (Numbers 23:19) and then I thought to myself when has The Lord promised me this wife and marriage? By me saying The Lord has given me unto marriage I risk making my Lord out to be a liar and saying my ways are higher then his. I also fell to raising my wife (if so be) above another promise God gave to me “I will make you my bridegroom”. Has my heart turned away from God so much that I focus on a want for a physical marriage which is a blur of the reflection of what he truly longs for me to have even more so? Which is eternity with him as His. And looking at Paul when he says in

1 Corinthians 7:7–8 (NIV84) “7 I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. 8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am.”

and then later on ….

1 Corinthians 7:32-33 (NKJ) “32 But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord. 33 But he who is married cares about the things of the world—how he may please his wife.”

I like how gotquestions.org says it this way “Notice that he says some have the gift of singleness and some the gift of marriage. Although it seems that nearly everyone marries, it is not necessarily God's will for everyone.” referring to verse 7, and I agree with this. It is not to say that being married or the yearning for marriage is wrong, but that even if you have that yearning, God can be calling you to focus on him more, and if it is to be a permanent single his role for you is to focus on him a lot more. to quote from gotquestions.org again “It is not a sin to remain single, even for your entire life. The most important thing in life is not finding a mate and having children, but serving God.” HOW I HAVE LIED TO MYSELF ABOUT THIS! And I am sure that others are caught in this lie. Because I have been the one to say, “my focus is on God” but then my mind goes to “plan to get a wife” or better yet “plan wait for a wife”. We can easily hide our idolatry in our current singleness, I did, cause my heart said I will get my wife in time and my heart never kept open singleness as being Gods plan. Let me say it this way: In your current state God is using you to serve him (if you are letting him), you have a ministry whether you know it or not, and by moving from a single to a married person your ministry WILL CHANGE. And that may or may not be Gods heart for you. while you are single be open to remaining single and how he is using you. because ultimately if he does have a person in store for you then that will be put into place without you lusting after it.

Let me close with a prayer that I have prayed personally:
God, you say my heart is deceitful, but you say you have a plan for me, you say that if I ask, you will answer whether the answer is what I want to hear. Lord I struggle with singleness, and I want to be close to someone, Lord in my singleness fill that void in me, for I truly urge for the only one who can fill me and no other person can make me feel the way I long for. May my mind be on you and you alone, that if you place someone in my life lord that I am blessed and if you place me with no one that I am still blessed for you fill the gap and my desire remains in you. May I hope for your higher calling, may I stay in your word and act out your decrees. For I wait for you to call my name. May it be true, Amen

God has given you the gift of singleness, and there is no middle ground you ether have the gift of marriage or the gift of singleness there is no gift of being in-between. So even if you are courting or dating you still have the gift of singleness. Lets start living in it!

Success vs Failure

To succeed in this world means to accomplish something. Align action with purpose and will to achieve a desired outcome. Many men base their identities upon there successes. Some on their failures. In today's world we are taught to believe on of two things about ourselves; that we are one two things a success or a failure. And there is some sort of unwritten code or point system that measures which side of the line you’re on based on the point values of your various successful undertakings and less successful exploits. Not surprising is the fact that those task deemed by the world to be more valuable and thus more worthwhile are the immoral evil action done by men who feel no shame. Men of God are already at a disadvantage when we walk out the door know that the things that bring other men favor within the world we can not condone. It is hard sometimes living a corrupt world where every man is considered either a success or a failure.
But what is a failure. Can it be simply defined as someone who fails? No one on earth can claim they have never failed. Does that mean that we’re all failure? The fear of failure can leave us paralyzed unable to act for fear of loss. And when we fail we can become discouraged and destructive mindsets can be established. Instead of trying harder to succeed often time we guarantee our failure by not trying at all.
Let’s get a healthy dose of perspective.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”(Romans 3:23) All fall therefore all have failed. As humans we fail everyday. We sin against the almighty God. How can you fail anymore than that! You fail to live up to your potential being made in God’s image for his glory every time you do something that brings shame to his name. (OUCH!) But there is hope in the next verse. “They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Isn’t that verse like a weigh of your chest. Justified by His grace, just say that word. Grace, doesn’t come out like a soothing sigh of relief. Ah, Grace. If it doesn’t it should. In other words the penalty for failing got a lot more bearable when you accepted his gift of grace and mercy. When Jesus died on the cross he said to us all, “You’re failures are pardoned. You’re debt is paid. I got you. Go and sin no more.”
“God presented Him as a propitiation though faith in His blood to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over sins previously committed.” The death of Jesus the spotless lamb was the removal of the consequences of our failures. We are no longer defined by our sin. We are no more sinners than we are failures. And we are not sinners. We are saints who sin. The whole point of the Bible is man finally being reconciled with God after his fall. A person's purpose here on earth is to be reconciled with God and then to bring Him glory. When you accepted Christ that was the ultimate success that goes way beyond their point system. It permanently made you a success in Him. The word says that the angels go nuts every time a sinner comes to Christ. Every regenerated Christian is a success in God’s eyes. Believe it and live like it. We will come across situations where we will not find success. Be comfortable with who you are. Let get comfortable with our failures.